UnREAL, a dramatization of the behind-the-scenes machinations of a Bachelor-like reality show, had a stellar, Peabody Award-winning first season—and has been trying to get that mojo back ever since. After a decidedly conflicted season two, and a better, but not much better season three, The Hollywood Reporter announced today

At the end of this UnREAL season, we have to wonder what the point of all this was. Was it to portray husband-hunter Serena as the ultimate feminist at the end? To show how close Quinn was to losing everything? Or to highlight the near-supernatural Jedi mind tricks of one Rachel Goldberg, able to manipulate anyone…

The Peabody Awards came out this week, and no big surprise, 2016 winner UnREAL was not in the list of nominees. Two years ago, the Peabodies described the show as “a spot-on, behind-the-scenes send-up of ersatz ‘reality’ shows like The Bachelor, UnREAL makes viewers care about venal producers and petty contestants…

I have been asking around and looking around for an overall take on this UnREAL season. The general gist seems to be that this season is not as bad as season two, but not as good as season one. In fact, this is one of the first officially “off” episodes of the season, wherein Quinn is so straight-up annoying that I…

UnREAL is set up on such a high tension level of drama: Its show-inside-of-a-reality-show setting makes everything 10 times larger than life. Which may be why all the decisions these characters make seem so huge, so life-altering: there are no so-so days on the Everlasting set. This episode resonates because most of…

Tonight’s episode of UnREAL is called “Gestalt,” defined by Merriam-Webster as “an organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts.” Which is an interesting choice for an episode that at times seems very fractious. Some parts fared better than other parts, but the editing seemed off: How can you…

We’re only at episode four of the season, but already UnREAL has landed in a superdark place. Junkie Alexi might be the most painful contestant we’ve witnessed on this show since Mary went off her meds in season one. What’s worse, Jay, usually the only voice of reason on Everlasting, has sold his soul by enabling…

This season of UnREAL is certainly better than last season of UnREAL, but it falters where last season faltered. The show is best focusing on the suitor and the contestants, and Quinn and Rachel, who pass the Bechdel test every episode. Instead, the show reaches too far, like its complicated and muddled attempt to try…

There was a dark time when I was much younger when the Rules book was popular. I had a neighbor who thought it was the best book ever and slid me a copy under my door (it was that thin). I skimmed through it, decided I wans’t willing to do any of the fakey things the book suggested, like “Be a Creature Unlike Any…

Following a successful, groundbreaking, Peabody-award-winning season one, UnREAL kind of lost its way in season two. After the departure of series co-creator Marti Noxon, series co-creator Sarah Gertrude Shapiro took over, and she lacked Noxon’s knack for creating compassionate characters and a believable throughline.…

Drag Race comedy challenges rarely leave me begging for more, but “The Bitchelor” deserves to be a Burning Love-style series on WOW Presents Plus. This parody of The Bachelor assigns each drag queen a different dating show archetype and pairs them up to improvise scenes with Unreal’s Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, and I…

The queens who get another chance to snatch the crown on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars are necessarily subjected to additional scrutiny, having learned the (s)lay of the land already. But season three looks like it’ll be extra challenging, thanks to a diverse lineup of guest judges.

UnRealnearly broke its arm trying to pat itself on the back during season two, despite the fact its treatment of hot-button issues like media racism and police brutality resulted in a story that was kind of a mess. But when your Bachelor satire stumbles, do the next obvious thing: Tackle The Bachelorette.

Coming out of its unfortunate sophomore slump, UnREALwill shake things up in season three with the first female suitor, turning the show from a Bachelor parody into a send-up of The Bachelorette. Constance Zimmer and Shiri Appleby broke the news in a Facebook live chat yesterday, the co-stars gleefully dishing on…

One of the aspects of Better Things that I’ve enjoyed the most is this view Pamela Adlon gives of a working actor. She’s not impoverished and waiting tables, but she can walk down the street and no one cares who she is. It’s not a life that’s often put onscreen, if only because it doesn’t have high glamor of celebrity…

Better Things’ first episode, named after the main character played by co-creator Pamela Adlon, is filled with half conversations and unspoken thoughts that are still telegraphed so clearly that the show comes out feeling more fully formed than others have been on for considerably longer than one episode. The show…

As UnREAL wraps up for its second season, let’s all think back: When did this season go so very wrong? Looking back, it seems like a series of missteps and zig-zags from week to week, with no overarching plan. The first time I remember being absolutely horrified was Brandi’s breakdown, and things just went more awry…

For better or worse, UnREAL season two has totally cast its lot in with Quinn and Rachel. Mostly, it’s been for worse, as the contestants have primarily sucked. This episode, however, reminds us why Rachel and Quinn belong together, forever and ever amen.

UnREAL got a huge reaction to last week’s episode, most of it not great. It was a solid effort, except for the fact that the show made the grave error of depicting a police stop pulling over two black men that ended in one of the men getting shot—then choosing to tell the story through the eyes of the depressed white…